The line-up for the 2008 Sundance Film Festival was announced earlier this week. I just got my hands on a boat load of photos from the films in this year’s festival. We actually have too many photos to feature in just one posting, so we have divided this feature into a few parts.

Our first segment in the series takes a look at the films in the Premiere category, which includes: Assassination of a High School President, Be Kind Rewind, CSNY Deja Vu, The Deal, Death In Love, Diminished Capacity, The Escapist, The Great Buck Howard, The Guitar, Henry Poole Is Here, In Bruges, Incendiary, The Merry Gentleman, A Raisin In The Sun, Savage Grace, Sleepwalking, Smart People, Towelhead, Transsiberian, U2 3D, The Visitor, What Just Happened?, The Year of Getting To Know Us, and The Yellow Handkerchief.

Yesterday Sundance announced the competition films for the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Today the Institute has released the rest of the line-up, which will play out-of-competition sections of Premieres, Spectrum, New Frontier, and Park City at Midnight. Highlights include:

The previously announced opening night film In Bruges starring Ralph Fiennes and Colin Farrell.

The Great Buck Howard starring Colin Hanks as a law school dropout who answers an advertisement to be a a washed up illusionist’s (played by John Malkovich) personal assistant. Emily Blunt and Tom Hanks also star.

Visionary director Michel Gondry’s Be Kind Rewind, about a man (Jack Black) whose body accidentally becomes magnetized unintentionally erases every tape in his friend’s (Mos Def) video store. The pair set out to remake the lost films in a film about the magic of movies and filmmaking.

Bill Maher’s directorial debut, Sleepwalking, about a young man who is faced with the prospect of losing his abandoned young niece to a foster home. Nick Stahl, AnnaSophia Robb, Charlize Theron, Dennis Hopper, and Woody Harrelson, star.

Morgan Spurlock’s follow-up to 2004’s Super Size Me, Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? follows Spurlock’s quest to fint the world’s most wanted man.

American Beauty screenwriter Alan Ball’s directorial debut, an adaptation of Towel Head. The film follows the life of a 13-year-old Arab-American girl who is forced to live with her father. I saw this film at Toronto and it has the same underlying energy of American Beauty. Aaron Eckhart, Maria Bello, Toni Collette, and Summer Bishil star.

U2 3D: A 3-D presentation of U2’s global “Vertigo” tour.

Barry Levinson’s adaptation of What Just Happened? stars Robert DeNiro, Bruce Willis, Sean Penn, Catherine Keener, Stanley Tucci, John Turturro, Kristen Stewart, and Robin Wright Penn. The movie follows two weeks in the life of a fading Hollywood producer (De Niro) who’s having a rough time trying to get his new picture made.

XX/XY director Austin Chick’s new film August, about two brothers fighting to keep their start-up company afloat on Wall Street during August 2001, a month before the 9/11 terrorist attack. Josh Hartnett and Adam Scott star.

The Duplass Brothers return to Sundance following their acclaimed 2005 low budget indie film The Puffy Chair. Baghead explores “the minutiae of relationship dynamics in this in-depth study of a group of desperate actor friends. And a bag. And a head.”

Cashback director Sean Ellis’s horror thriller The BrÃ¸ken starring Lena Headey (300) as a woman who sees herself driving by in her own car on a busy London street. Stunned, she trails the mystery woman as events take an eerie turn into a living nightmare.

Otto; or Up With Dead People, a movie about a lonely gay zombie searches for love and meaning in contemporary Berlin.

Spainish writer/director Nacho Vigalondo’s Timecrimes follows a man accidentally travels back to the past, only to meet himself there and encounters a series of mysteries that all lead to an unthinkable crime. I’m a sucker for Time Travel.

At least 5,000 3-D systems expected to be in place by 2009. DreamWorks Animation’s Jeffrey Katzenberg expects there to be 12 to 18 3D feature films by 2010. 3-D is clearly the future of cinema, at least for the near future. With the recent announcements of Tim Burton’s Alice and Wonderland/Frankenweenie, and today’s announcement of Final Destination 4 in 3D, we’ve decided to compile a schedule for the upcoming 3D movie releases. Enjoy!

2008:

January 25th 2008:U2 3D: Performances from seven different shows of U2’s Latin America Vertigo Tour in early 2006. Previews of this film have tested incredibly well.

February 15th 2008: Fly Me to the Moon: A computer animated tale of three young houseflies stow away aboard the Apollo 11 flight to the moon. Tim Curry, Nicollette Sheridan, Christopher Lloyd, Robert Patrick and Kelly Ripa voice characters.

October 2008: Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas: Disney has said they plan to rerelease the film around Halloween as long as it remains profitable.

Final Destination 4: Final Destination 2 director David R. Ellis returns to the franchise. Interestingly enough, Final Destination 3 was in development under the working title Final Destination 3-D, but the produces ultimately chose not to produce the movie in 3D due to costs and complications. This film might be pushed to 2009.

2009:

March 27th 2009: Monsters vs. Aliens: A reinvention of the classic ’50s monster movie. Directed by Rob Letterman (Shark Tale).
May 22nd 2009: James Cameron’s Avatar: A band of humans are pitted in a battle against a distant planet’s indigenous population. Michelle Rodriguez, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Giovanni Ribisi star. $190 million budget.

October 2009: Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas: Disney has said they plan to rerelease the film around Halloween as long as it remains profitable.

November 6th 2009: A Christmas Carol: Has not been publicly confirmed as a 3D release, but the film will use the same performance capture technique Robert Zemeckis also used in Polar Express and Beowuld. The classic retelling will star Jim Carrey as Scrooge and the three ghosts. Tom Hanks, Michael J Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Bob Hoskins are also rumored to be on board the project.
November 20th 2009:How to Train Your Dragon: Based on the 2003 children’s novel by British author Cressida Cowell, about the adventures of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III – The teenage son of a Viking chieftain, who must capture a dragon for a rite of passage.

Crood Awakening: A comedy set in the stone age directed by Chris Sanders (Lilo & Stitch)

TinTin: Directed by Peter Jackson or Steven Spielberg. The adventures of popular Belgian comic-strip hero Tintin and his faithful dog Snowy.

Tim Burton’s Alive in Wonderland: Screenplay by Linda Woolverton (The Lion King) based on the Lewis Carroll classic. Film will be combine performance-capture technology with live-action footage.

Deep Sea-quel: As the name suggests, a sequel to the popular 2006 3D documentary Deep Sea 3D. An underwater look at the diverse coastal regions of Southern Australia, New Guinea and the Indo-Pacific areas and the impact of global warming on the oceans. IMAX.

2010:

May 21st 2010: Shrek Goes Fourth: The further adventures of the giant green ogre, Shrek, living in the land of Far, Far Away. We will discover how Shrek arrived in that swamp. Not to be confused with Shrek 4-D which is a theme park attraction.

October 2010: Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas: Disney has said they plan to rerelease the film around Halloween as long as it remains profitable.

Fall 2010:Master Mind: A satirical take on superhero movies, in which a notorious villain loses his oomph after he accidentally kills his nemesis.

Untitled Tintin Sequel: Directed by Peter Jackson or Steven Spielberg. The continued adventures of popular Belgian comic-strip hero Tintin and his faithful dog Snowy.

Puss in Boots: A Shrek spinoff starring sword fighting cat voiced by Antonio Banderas. They haven’t officially announced this as a 3D title, but Jeffrey Katzenberg has said that all animated films released by Dreamworks after 2009 will be released in 3D.

2011:

TinTin 3: Directed by ????. Spielberg has said that he may direct this in collaboration with Peter Jackson, or that they might hire someone completely new. The continued adventures of popular Belgian comic-strip hero Tintin and his faithful dog Snowy.

In Development:

Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie: A feature length remake of his 1984 short film. A parody of the 1931 Frankenstein film. When young Victor’s pet dog Sparky is hit by a car, Victor decides to bring him back to life the only way he knows how. But when the bolt-necked “monster” wreaks havoc and terror in the hearts of Victor’s neighbors, he has to convince them and his parents, that despite his appearance, Sparky’s still the good loyal friend he’s always been. Burton will shoot the film using stop-motion animation.
Battle Angel: James Cameron’s adaptation of the graphic novel about a female cyborg who is rescued from the scrapheap by a scientist, who becomes her surrogate father.

Star Wars: George Lucas has announced plans to remaster all of the Star Wars films in 3D. When this might actually happen is anyones guess.

All dates subject to change. Have we missed any upcoming big 3D releases? E-Mail Us.